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UN / GA LAZZARINI UNRWA
STORY: UN / GA LAZZARINI UNRWA
TRT: 03:20
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 04 MARCH 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
204 MARCH 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, General Assembly
3. Wide shot, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini at the GA rostrum
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“UNRWA is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them.
Operations that are mandated by this Assembly. Part of this campaign involves inundating donors with misinformation designed to foster distrust and tarnish the reputation of the Agency. More blatant, is the Israeli Prime Minister openly stating that UNRWA will not be a part of post-war Gaza. The implementation of this plan is already underway with the destruction of our infrastructure across the Gaza Strip.”
5. Wide shot, Lazzarini at the GA rostrum
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“Only UNRWA has the footprint and capacity to deliver services, including education and primary healthcare at scale, in the absence of a full-fledged state authority. Providing education to half a million deeply traumatized children living amid rubble is glaringly absent from discussions around handing over service provision in Gaza.”
7. Wide shot, Lazzarini at the GA rostrum
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“The repeated calls by the Government of Israel to eliminate the Agency are not about neutrality. The campaign against UNRWA is intended to shift the long-standing political parameters for peace in the occupied Palestinian territory set by the General Assembly and the Security Council, without consulting either body. Attacks against UNRWA seek to eliminate its role in protecting the rights of Palestine Refugees and acting as a witness to their plight.”
9. Wide shot, Lazzarini walks away
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dennis Francis, President, General Assembly:
“UNRWA may not survive without our immediate and decisive action. I firmly believe that in the wake of recent scrutiny, UNRWA must still continue to discharge its mandate – while efforts remain underway to respond to questions raised; and the Secretary-General concludes the ongoing investigations which should provide all information to this Assembly. I also believe that – as the custodian of UNRWA's mandate – this Assembly bears the primary duty towards the Agency, its staff, and the millions of refugees it supports until its mission is accomplished.”
18. Wide shot, Francis walks away
Briefing the General Assembly, the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini today (4 Mar) said the agency “is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them.”
Lazzarini had sent a letter to Assembly President Dennis Francis last week saying the agency would soon be unable to fulfil its mandate because of funding cuts stemming from Israel’s allegations that agency workers were complicit in Hamas’s October attacks.
The UNRWA Chief reminded delegates that the agency’s operations “are mandated by this Assembly” and said, “part of this campaign involves inundating donors with misinformation designed to foster distrust and tarnish the reputation of the Agency. More blatant, is the Israeli Prime Minister openly stating that UNRWA will not be a part of post-war Gaza.”
He said the implementation of this plan was “already underway with the destruction of our infrastructure across the Gaza Strip.”
Lazzarini stressed that “only UNRWA has the footprint and capacity to deliver services, including education and primary healthcare at scale, in the absence of a full-fledged state authority.”
He said, “providing education to half a million deeply traumatized children living amid rubble is glaringly absent from discussions around handing over service provision in Gaza.”
The Commissioner-General said “repeated calls” by Israel to eliminate UNRWA “are not about neutrality.”
He said, “the campaign against UNRWA is intended to shift the long-standing political parameters for peace in the occupied Palestinian territory set by the General Assembly and the Security Council, without consulting either body,” and added that “attacks against UNRWA seek to eliminate its role in protecting the rights of Palestine Refugees and acting as a witness to their plight.”
General Assembly President Dennis Francis for his part said, “UNRWA may not survive without our immediate and decisive action. I firmly believe that in the wake of recent scrutiny, UNRWA must still continue to discharge its mandate – while efforts remain underway to respond to questions raised; and the Secretary-General concludes the ongoing investigations which should provide all information to this Assembly. I also believe that – as the custodian of UNRWA's mandate – this Assembly bears the primary duty towards the Agency, its staff, and the millions of refugees it supports until its mission is accomplished.”
The meeting follows an Assembly debate this morning on the US veto of the latest Security Council draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in war-torn Gaza.
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